Thursday, July 28, 2005

It's a Small World

I know you're a member.

So, where's my invite?

Sunday, July 24, 2005

up, up and away

I have two online accounts that have consistently been going up since I signed up with them.

My Gmail account keeps giving me more megs (it's currently at 2426, after doubling to 2000 mb in april), and my ING Direct savings account just went up to 3.15% (I signed up in the fall when it was at like 2.6% or so).

Crazy Insane

Ahh, it's been quite a week. Let's see what I remember.

Tuesday: So I started the Harry Potter book on Saturday, and read for maybe 8 hours total over the weekend. And then for probably another 2 or 3 hours on Monday after work. Well, I wasn't planning on finishing the book on Tuesday, but it's such a gripping plot that it's hard to just stop in the middle. Very different from the first five, but still staying true to the characters and the overarching plot, and a beautiful set-up for the final novel. I stayed up until 2 am to finish the book. Yeah, I never stay up that late: even in college, when I had assignments due, I would go to bed and then wake up early the next morning to finish them. 600+ pages in 4 days. A lot of the people I know that have read it, finished it over the weekend. So I'm the slow one. Crazy.

Wednesday: Q. Where can you find an ambulance, police cars, a fire truck, a limo, and a purple taxi cab? A. The Indian movie theater of course! Why go to an Indian movie on Wednesday, you ask. Because it's 2-for-1 silly! Yeah, so we didn't realize it at the time, but the movie we were planning to see is apparantly really popular, and got sold out last week. So by the time we could buy our tickets, it was sold out once again. Ah well, next week I guess. As for the bizarre arrangement of cars, apparantly there was a bit of a tussle with a couple saving seats for their whole family, and another family wanting those seats, proceeding to attack the other family! Obviously, that doesn't explaing the limo or purple taxi cab. But then again, nothing can explain a purple taxi cab, or why someone needs to arrive at a movie theater in a limo. We ended up going to the dollar theater and seeing "Kicking and Screaming" with Will Ferrell. That guy can carry pretty much any film by himself, and this was no exception. The trailers sucked, so I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was really funny.

Friday: Well, since we couldn't go to the Indian movie on Wednesday, we still needed our Indian fill for the week! What better place to fill that empty hole than the National Indian Asian Dance Convention? I can't think of one. Pretty good dance performances overall, but I could have done without the slow parts, even though that's supposedly what typefies some Indian classical dance. Parts of it actually reminded me of Riverdance, since the dancers were so synchronized and they had bells on their ankles that made sounds similar to the taps. In the spirit of diversity, they also had performances by a hip-hop group and a flamenco group (that had performed on Broadway, Carnegie Hall, and the Lincoln Center) .

Saturday: It's off to Ft. Worth for An Evening of Jazz! And by "evening," I mean we arrived at around 5:30 pm. Yeah, so imagine sitting on a paper-thin blanket in a parking lot with the sun beating down on you, and there's no shade. It seems almost cruel to say that jazz is supposed to be "cool" music when you're trying to endure the 100+ degrees weather. I'm used to being in the heat for a total of 5-10 minutes every day: from my apartment to my car, from my car to the office, from the office to the car, and from the car to my apartment. This was like an hour and a half straight! My body was confused, and really wanted me to go into an air-conditioned environment as soon as possible. There was a huge break between performers, so we thought it'd be a good time to go get dinner. When we came back around 10, the concert was much more enjoyable, since it was much cooler and the performers were much more skilled (featuring former NBA star Wayman Tisdale!). They even got the entire crowd (several hundred people) doing the Hustle! Quite a scene.

Friday, July 22, 2005

What's in a Name?

Although the name Sumeet creates the urge to be both logical and technical, we emphasize that it causes procrastination, lack of confidence, and the inability to realize your goals and ambitions. This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the elimination and fluid systems.

Your first name of Sumeet has given you a pleasant, easy-going, friendly nature. Personal contacts are important to you. In situations where you are serving others, demonstrating or instructing, you have the patience to go into details that someone else may not think to be important. In your association with others, you are often limited to the more mundane happenings and little personal problems that can be so frustrating to those of an active, dynamic nature. You desire to create system and order in your environment but are inclined to become side-tracked and socialize when you should be working. Your ambitions are not large, as you lack confidence in your own abilities and would sooner not take a chance.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Wow

From http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050717/D8BDC2BG0.html

Even allowing for deep discounts on the $29.99 release, "Half-Blood Prince" still easily generated more than $100 million in revenue. It's not only the richest opening in publishing history, but tops the combined estimated take for the weekend's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers."

"When a book beats out movies, we're in great shape," Holton [ president of Scholastic Children's Books] said.

$100 million in one day?  For a book?  Unbelievable.  That's probably more than the revenue of most book publishers for an entire year.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Who's Screwing Up America?

There's this new book out called "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America."  I'd include the list here, but it's 100 people, and I've noticed my posts get really long, so here's a link: http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/7/6/16128/65032

Yeah, so it's pretty obvious that the author is a Republican, with Michael Moore, Jimmy Carter (founder of Habitat for Humanity),  Al Sharpton, Al Gore,  DNC chair Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and John Edwards all in the top 20.  Also making the list are Paris Hilton's parents, Barbra Streisand, Dan Rather, Eminem, Ludacris, and Latrell Sprewell.

I haven't read the book, so I don't know his arguments for each person, but here's the amazon.com blurb:
     
"Bernard Goldberg takes dead aim at the America Bashers (the cultural elites who look down their snobby noses at "ordinary" Americans) ... the Hollywood Blowhards (incredibly ditzy celebrities who think they're smart just because they're famous) ... the TV Schlockmeisters (including the one whose show has been compared to a churning mass of maggots devouring rotten meat) ... the Intellectual Thugs (bigwigs at some of our best colleges, whose views run the gamut from left wing to far left wing) ... and many more."

From watching the interview, it seems that his main point is that people in Hollywood (and the entertainment industry in general) have a far greater influence than politicians in Washington.

I caught the author on the Daily Show, and I agree with Jon Stewart, that we be more concerned with the politicians, who have the power to directly change our lives (through foreign policy, taxes, social security, the environment, etc.).  Stewart made a good point that there was no correlation between the people the author named and the basic standard-of-living measurements (drug rates, crime rates, etc.), and noted that they have actually been decreasing.

What's with all the entertainers on the list?  If you have a couple of platinum-selling CDs (Eminem won an Oscar!), or a hit TV show, you're "screwing up" America??  Latrell Sprewell may deserve to be on the list, though, due to his choking incident back in the day to more recently complaining about not making enough to "feed his family."  Then again, I don't buy the argument that entertainers should display impeccable behavior all the time, since some entertainers are just good at what they're paid to do.  Sprewell is a perfect example of this.  He's pretty good at basketball, but he isn't a model citizen.  Does that mean he's screwing up America? I don't think so, as long as people realize (as most do) that he gets paid to play basketball, not to be a role model.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Dentists Suck

It's true.  They do.

Nurse 1: Is this the cavitron?
Nurse 2: I've never used one before.
Me: (thinking) This is good.

Nurse 1: And now your chair will go up. <pushes a button and the chair goes down>
Me: (thinking) Um.. is it that hard to get a nurse who knows how to operate the cavitron and the chair?

Nurse 1: And now we'll be using this tooth polisher.
<pushes a button and the instrument next to the polisher starts vibrating>
Nurse 1: What's going on?
Me: (thinking) Yeah, good question.  Does anyone in the room know what's going on?

Ugh.. well luckily, I'm still alive and still have all my teeth (I think).

But I am really puffy all around my mouth area (they decided it would be a good idea to apply an anesthetic).  They said it would wear off after 2-3 hours and not to have any solid foods, cause then I might bite my cheeks and it would hurt like a bitch (my words, not theirs) after it wore off.  I guess this is what Botox feels like, except all the time.

Oh, and they charged me $80, even though last time it was free, and they did the exact same thing as last time!  Whatever, I don't get it.  The sad part is, it isn't over.  They want me to get my wisdom teeth removed too... which probably means more anesthetic, more puffiness. 

I know they had places in Austin that would put you under "experimental" drugs and actually pay you to extract your wisdom teeth.  Does anyone know if there's anything like that here?  I was telling the receptionist at the dentist's office about it, and he seemed highly skeptical of the whole idea.

Dentists suck.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Guilty Pleasures

Check it.

1) R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" (a 5-part "urban operatta") - I caught this on VH1 (yeah, the last place you would expect to see R. Kelly) a few days ago.  Each part ends with a cliffhanger at the end of the video, so it's hard not to watch the entire thing.  Luckily, VH1 didn't let me down, and showed all 5 videos back-to-back!  It's quite a story, with every character involved in some sort of affair and hiding some sort of secret.  I think I've heard some of it on the radio, but you really need a visual to tell the story in a convincing fashion.

2) "The Inside" on FOX Wednesdays  - I was just flipping through when this show piqued my interest.  I ended up watching both episodes (I don't know if that's a regular thing, or just a July-6-let's-have-two-episodes thing).  The premise of the show centers on an FBI field office with agents who get deeply involved with the crimes that they solve.  For example, in the first episode, the hot blonde agent appears to have an emotional breakdown when she calls the suicide prevention hotline (the case involves people who had called it just before they were murdered).  At first, the other agents figure that she's just a really good actress, but then later realize that she had been kidnapped when she was 10 and used the call as her own personal outlet.  I couldn't really figure out why the agent in the second epsiode was so riled up about the criminal (besides the fact he ripped out his victim's hearts after he killed them), but I'm sure the agent had some kind of personal connection with one of the victims.  Anyways, I don't watch any of the other law/criminal shows, so this show might be just like the rest of them.  Except, of course, for the hot blonde FBI agent.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Carnival Games

I went to downtown Garland yesterday for 4th of July festivities.  They had the requisite fireworks, along with a concert by "country hitmaker" Tracy Lawerence (their description), and a carnival.   The fireworks were yawn-inducing, and I'm not a big fan of country music, although watching people in cowboy hats get their two-step on was quite entertaining.  Oh, and there was this one girl, about 16 or 17 years old, who kept putting this light-up object in her mouth.  I didn't find out until much later that it was a pacifier.  Why they even had those is still a mystery, and why she was sucking on one a bigger mystery still.

I didn't expect anything at all from the carnival (since it was in Garland), but it was actually quite massive, complete with rides and games that were impossible to win.  I really wonder how they come up with these games.  They have to appear to be easy, so people will be inclined to play, but also have some kind of twist that makes it nearly impossible to win.  Carnival games are a lot like gambling in a casino, except in a casino, you know your chances of winning.  At a carnival game, it isn't the numbers that beat you, it's your own lack of skill that does you in.

Oh, and the highlight of the carnival: a couple of cops chasing down (literally, on foot) some black guys.  Quite the scene, especially since the walkway was packed full of people, and there was hardly enough room to walk, let alone run through it.